If a suspect confesses, why do they plead ‘not guilty?’

If a person confesses to a
crime, why do they plead not guilty in court?

It’s a common question and came up last week when
Hap Jackson’s 21-year-old grandson confessed, multiple times,
to stabbing his 90-year-old grandfather at his Rocky Point
home.

Between detailed admissions to investigators, and to the 911
operator he called, plus deputies finding a bloody knife in the
kitchen sink, where
Willie Jackson said he left it, plus statements Willie Jackson
made online immediately following his grandfather’s death, it’s
reasonable to think that he did it.

But when he got into court, he pleaded not guilty. What
gives?

First thing to understand, said Bremerton defense attorney Tom
Weaver, is the difference between “innocent” and “not guilty.”

Not guilty can mean innocent – as people are presumed innocent
until found guilty – but in essence, pleading not guilty sets
into motion the process where attorneys can review the case.
Otherwise, once a plea is accepted, the next step is
sentencing.

Defendants may be suffering some sort of mental illness, Weaver
said, and that has to checked out. They may have been compelled to
make the incriminating statements. There are the rare cases where
police simply make up a confession. Then there are cases when
people make false confessions.

When a defendant enters their plea — the hearing where this is
done is called an arraignment — often defense attorneys only have
the charging document — called a probable cause statement — which
is sort of an outline of the case against a defendant. Prosecutors
ultimately have to turn over all the evidence gathered by
investigators, a process called discovery, but that can involve a
lot of information, interview transcripts, medical documents,
reports, etc.

“Pleading not guilty allows the time to do those things,” Weaver
said.

In fact, it’s not unusual for a judge to enter a not guilty plea
on behalf of a defendant, or in some cases, simply decline to
accept a guilty plea at arraignment.

When it comes to serious
cases, like murder, it would be extremely rare for a judge to
accept a guilty plea at an early appearance.

“Legally, you have the right to plead guilty at arraignment,”
said Chief Deputy Prosecutor Chad Enright. “But it is a qualified
right.”

In cases where a person is charged with aggravated first-degree
murder, state law prevents them from pleading guilty for 30 days
after arraignment, Weaver said.

The judge – whose job is to protect a defendant’s rights, lest
the case be returned to their courtroom on appeal – has to make an
independent determination that the plea is voluntary. They also
have to make sure that a defendant understands the nature of the
charges, possible consequences and that they are giving up their
right to a trial and to appeal. Enright said at arraignment there
usually hasn’t been enough time to accomplish all that.

In some cases, for low level offenses, a judge may accept the
plea. And in others, where a defense attorney is thinking
strategically and advises his or her client to plead to a lower
degree of a crime to ensure prosecutors won’t get the chance to
ratchet it up, Enright said a judge may accept a guilty plea.
However, it’s likely the defense attorney would need to go through
the checklist, telling the judge that the defendant had been
properly informed and the attorney had a complete understanding of
the investigation and was able to competently advise the
defendant.

“I can’t recall seeing that happen, but hypothetically I can
think of a circumstance like that,” Enright said.

To illustrate how entering a not guilty plea can be a
formality, Weaver related an anecdote from his time as an intern
for the Washington D.C. public defender’s office. A shoplifting
suspect was brought in front of a judge for a very brief
arraignment, the legal system’s equivalent of speed dating. The
defendant explained to the judge that she was a tourist, she had
shoplifted and she lived in Minnesota. It would be extremely
expensive to travel back and forth and she just wanted to plead
guilty, take her lumps and get on with her life.

When the defendant stopped talking the judge looked past her and
asked, “Whose case is this?”

A lawyer in the background piped up: “I’m sorry, your honor, we
plead not guilty.”